


Just Another Day

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Humour, Rodney Defending Himself, Rodney in Peril, Vegetables as Weapons, wraith attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-20
Updated: 2016-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-23 12:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8328094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: Rodney has to defend himself from a Wraith while stuck off-world.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flora (florahart)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/florahart/gifts).



> Written for florahart who asked for Rodney, cauliflower and aspirin. 
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal in 2008.

Rodney looked out of the window of the hut, scanning the village for any sign of life. But there was none. He was completely alone, save for the Wraith lying unconscious on the floor. Anxiously he went back to rubbing the rope that tied his right hand to the wall against a convenient nail, and pulling at it with his freed left hand. He knew that Atlantis wouldn’t be expecting him or the small group of scientists he’d been leading on a “routine” investigation of some Ancient ruins, to check in for another 30 minutes. And by then the Wraith may well have woken up and killed him. Like it had the others.

It was only by complete luck that Rodney had managed to reach out and kick the table hard enough for it to careen the Wraith into the wall, knocking it unconscious. If the Wraith hadn’t moved it in his eagerness to finish feeding on Dr Maitland, he would never have managed it. He’d just be hanging from the wall, an empty husk the only thing Sheppard and the others would find.

“Come on, Rodney, think…” he muttered to himself, face turning red as he tried to free himself. What he really needed was Ronon’s knife…one of Ronon’s knives. Something, anything, that would…

The all too familiar sound of Wraith darts hovering overhead made him pause, sweat breaking out on his forehead. He spared a quick glance at the prone Wraith then went back to what he had been doing. Now was not the time to panic.

Okay, yes, now was exactly the time to panic, but Atlantis couldn’t send help if they didn’t know he needed it, and the villagers, wherever they might have fled to, needed help as much as he did.

Rodney cursed softly as his arm finally came free, ripping part of his uniform and scratching his skin.

“Great, now I’ll get tetanus too,” he said. The Wraith on the ground shifted slightly and Rodney paused, heart hammering. It didn’t wake up, but the Wraith darts were sounding closer every minute.

“Okay, what would Sheppard do? No, I want to get out of here in one piece. What would Teyla do?”

Getting out of the room was a logical first step.

He opened the unlocked door a crack and peered outside. The village was just as empty as before.

Then swift movement in the building opposite caught his eye. He froze, hands gripping the door hard in case he needed to slam it shut in a hurry.

But then a face appeared in the window and he let out a sigh of relief. It was Jainan, the wine merchant’s son. He was flapping his arms and urging Rodney to cross the square to him.

With no better plan in sight Rodney nodded and ducked back into the room. He took the Wraith’s gun – a sharp tug followed by a spike of fear as he waited to make sure the Wraith wasn’t going to move and then he headed outside.

He kept his body to the shadows as Ronon had taught him, and kept his ears open. Teyla had been dragging him to meditation once a week – his cries of having more actual important things to do falling on deaf ears. And though he’d never tell her this, her lessons about siphoning off his thoughts to let him concentrate were actually proving useful.

His self-congratulatory mood drew up short when he tried to open the door to Jainan’s hideaway and found it was locked.

“It’s locked,” Jainan told him through the window.

“I can see that,” Rodney hissed, patience worn thin and headache threatening his temples.

“You’ve got to go around the back,” Jainan was saying.

“Which way?” Rodney asked. But Jainan’s eyes were wide open and fixed on something behind Rodney. Something Rodney was very sure he didn’t need to see for himself.

“Which way?” Rodney shouted louder, but the Wraith dart overhead drowned the sound out, even if Jainan had been listening.

So Rodney started to run, a futile dash to the end of the building and into the garden area. But he wasn’t quick enough.

His body hit the ground with a crunch that told him his wrist was sprained, if not broken. He gritted his teeth and turned over, seeing the Wraith looming over him, feeding hand outstretched.

The Wraith didn’t say anything, just kept on coming at him as if in slow motion. Rodney’s brain whirred as quickly as possible and he looked around for the gun he’d been carrying. But it had been knocked out of his hand and was too far out of reach.

But the Mondel planets weren’t. They were cauliflower-like vegetables that tasted like rock and were just as heavy.

Rodney gritted his teeth against the pain, pulled at a faux cauliflower and then swung it as hard as he could against the Wraith’s head. The Wraith dropped onto Rodney’s legs and lay there, motionless.

It was too much to hope for that it was dead, but Rodney didn’t have the strength to move it.

“McKay…Rodney…Do…copy…”

The radio in his ear sparked back into life, followed by sounds of gunfire.

“McKay…Sheppard…Wraith…coming…”

He closed his eyes in relief and sagged down into the dirt.

“Jesus, McKay, are you all right?” Sheppard came round the corner, gun trained on the Wraith across Rodney’s legs.

“Great, yeah, you?” Rodney asked sarcastically. He ignored the relief in the others’ faces as they joined Sheppard and glared instead. “Well, are you going to get this thing off me or what?”

Ronon rolled his eyes but moved the Wraith, calmly shooting it in the head before helping Rodney to his feet.

“Ow,” Rodney complained, cradling his arm. “I think it’s broken.”

Teyla was quick to examine it, but after a moment she could see that it was barely even bruised. “It is fine, Rodney.”

“And where did you get your medical degree again?” he asked, earning him a sharp poke in the ribs from Ronon.

“Nothing an aspirin won’t fix,” Sheppard told him.

“An aspirin?” Rodney spluttered.

“Come on, Rodney,” said Teyla, “we should get you back to Atlantis.” She placed a conciliatory hand on his uninjured arm and started walking with him back to the Gate.

“What about the villagers?”

“John and Ronon will make sure they are safe.”

“Okay. Thank Jainan for me,” Rodney turned back to tell Sheppard. The other man nodded and he and Ronon headed round to the back of the building.

“We were very worried about you.”

“Yeah?” Rodney asked. “Well, yes, of course you were.” Teyla smiled softly to herself as Rodney continued in a quieter tone than usual, “I was pretty worried too”.

“We will soon be back home and you can tell everyone how you defeated a Wraith with a vegetable.” This last was said in a rush, as if Teyla were trying hard not to laugh. It was such a rare occurrence that he found himself grinning a little too.

But out loud he said, “it was part of my plan all along,” and Teyla didn’t contradict him.


End file.
